Cucina Testa Rossa

La Bataille des Bouteilles ~ Chardonnay vs Sauvignon Blanc

La Bataille des Bouteilles ~ The Battle of the Bottles
Chardonnay vs Sauvignon Blanc

The inimitable Chef Patrick Chazallet has asked that, as a follow-up to our blog appétit st. jacques et poireaux recipe, we now recommend a wine to go with our individual recipe so in homage to my old stomping grounds, I am recommending two wines from the Napa Valley.  Also, everything I know about French wines could fit in a thimble, so I’ll stick to what (little) I do know…. 

These two whites are very different but I think both would go well with this dish. Chardonnay is the standard default for coquille st jacques but after a bad Hunter S Thompson-esqe experience with a wine-in-a-box of chardonnay in college, I have been hard pressed to even be able to smell it to this day. Same goes for gin, but that’s another story…

Since washing up on these fine french shores nearly a year ago I have tried to slowly wean myself back to this upstanding grape.  I’m ok if it doesn’t have too much oaky taste to it and if it’s aged in tanks, as opposed to the oak barrels, well then bottoms up! 

On the other hand, I love sauvignon blanc with it’s crisp, light, refreshing demeanor and no bad college “Fear & Loathing...” flashbacks to cramp it’s style.  Rather than try to pick one, I took the easy way out and selected one of each.  After all, when you have 3 friends over for dinner, you drink at least 2 bottles of wine…right???

So the first wine I selected is a St. Supery 2003 Sauvignon Blanc from the Napa Valley with a very light, crispness to it, some grassy, herby scents and flavors of citrus and kiwi, grapefruit, and tangerine.  That I can do! The second is a 2002 Hess Select Chardonnay.  I selected this for a few reasons. The first is that this chardonnay has a lot of tropical favors that I thought would lend itself nicely with the mango sauce. 

Another reason is that the winery itself is spectacular—a 3-story stone winery built in the early 1900s greets you at the end of the winding driveway.  A 20 minute video at the beginning of their tour showcases the history of the Napa Valley and the history of Donald Hess and the Hess Collection winery which in itself is fascinating. 

This is followed by a walk through their 13,000 square foot museum filled with remarkable pieces of art personally selected by Mr. Hess, all with extraordinary stories behind them.  One piece I will never forget from my last visit was an old fashioned typewriter with flames (real ones) coming out of the typewriter cartridge. From what my sieve of a brain can recall, the artist is from South America and he had a relative (parent? sibling?) who was a journalist that was killed for writing for an anti-government paper…. so a lot of very interesting art with even more captivating stories. A must if you ever get out to the Napa Valley.

Cheers!  Santé!

The Hess Collection
4411 Redwood Road
Napa, CA 94558
877-707-HESS / 877-707-4377
[email protected]

St. Supéry Vineyards and Winery
8440 St. Helena Hwy.
Rutherford CA 94573
phone 1.707.963.4507 / 1.800.942.0809
[email protected]

1000 Recipes ~ Book 2

My 1000 recipes book just arrived from Memphis, Tennessee!  Now to think of a  recipe worthy of this precious little book making it's way around the globe.  So much of my culinary inspiration comes from meandering through my many cookbooks and since they are all in storage in San Francisco and I am (not in storage) in Paris, I'll have to find inspriation elsewhere... Good thing I'm in a culinary mecca...that and the market is tomorrow...

Musique dans ma Cuisine Francaise

Music in my (French) Kitchen ~ A huge thank you to Cathy from My Little Kitchen and Amy from Cooking with Amy for asking me to participate in this fun meme. My apologies for taking so long to finish this but this job/working thang is really cutting into my social life ;-)  I've also been sick the past few days and nearly coughed up a lung last night. I am also musically braindead.  Cathy, I hate to disappoint you but I’m sure my responses are far from fascinating!

When I mentioned this to my roommate Pierre he laughed hysterically because I am the biggest music nerd (or geek as he calls me) on the planet. Most of the music on my computer is from him and the rest from another chef I worked with last summer in Brittany who was also appalled at my abject stupidity of all things music.  Remember, my parents listened to Burl Ives when I was young so I didn’t stand a chance… I did however tell my parents I was going to the library and instead went to a Journey concert in high school. That's about as wild as I got...

What is the total amount of music files on your computer?

A little over 1 gig, about 16 CDs and a handful of random songs worth… do I listen to it all? nooooooooooooo….of course not! but then again my roommates Pierre & John always have their music playing and it's so much cooler and hipper than mine could hope ever be.

The CD you last bought?

I didn’t buy it, I “borrowed” it from my roommates' collection: Frank Sinatra, The Film Collection & Marvin Gaye, Midnight Love

What was the last song you listened to before reading this message?

Gwen Stefani, What You Waiting For & What’s My Life – It’s on Pierre’s iPod which he plugged into the stereo system.

Write down 5 songs you often listen to or that mean a lot to you.

That little light of mine, I’m gonna’ let it shine – I don’t know who wrote it but when my pastor at church sings this, I swear the earth moves… One time I was on the subway in NYC heading home from a typical day at cooking school, dejected and beaten down, and a man started singing this song.  There's no doubt in my mind that he was an angel sent down to brighten my crappy day. I was so grateful I gave him $20. I would have given him more if I had it on me…

Anything from The Three Tenors in Concert, with Mehta in Rome 1990 – I LOVE THIS CD! When I taught Italian or Fresh Pasta cooking classes I always had this playing in the background and we’d start with some hot foccacia just out of the oven and a glass of 2000 Ottella Lugana made from grapes from the shores of Lake Garda, outside of Verona. La Dolce Vita!  Here's a little background on this historic concert. It gives me goosebumps – what I would have given to be there!

"On the evening of July 7, 1990, in the Eternal City, the phenomenon was born. The stars were shining and the Roman air perfumed and pleasantly cool when the downbeat was given, signaling 200 musicians to begin the overture to Verdi's I vespri Siciliani. Not even the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antonius, otherwise known as Caracalla and in whose ancient baths the music echoed could have imagined such a sight. Long established as a venue for opera and concerts since their construction nearly 1800 years ago, these noble remains have seen many wonderful spectacles. But that night their stark and beautiful ruins framed three remarkable tenor voices joined together for the first time in one performance. Six thousand lucky souls were there to witness history..."

Tina Turner, Proud Mary – When I was in college and for years after, my friends and I followed a local SF band, EC Scott & Smoke, and EC would always sing “Proud Mary” when we came to see her.  The self-proclaimed Empress of Soul has been described as “one red hot blueswoman who vocalizes in a sexy, silky, smokey voice that's perfectly suited to down and dirty blues and sweet slow grooves as well. E.C. always has the finest blues musicians to back her, and her band, Smoke, does. Smoke, that is.” 

Tom Jones, Delilah – In the fall of 99, I worked on Bill Bradley’s presidential campaign and one night all of us on the advance team in New Hampshire went out to a bar that happened to have karaoke. One of the guys on the team, I think his name is Mo, to our surprise got up and sang Delilah. I’d never heard it before but we all sang along. This song always puts a smile on my face and reminds me of a wonderful experience with some great people.

Johnny Nash, I Can See Clearly Now – I love this song!  It’s the first song on my tape that I made (years ago!) for running (ok, jogging).  It makes my toes tap, my heart soar, and my spirit fly…and always puts a huge smile on my face. Like I said, huge nerd!

Who are you going to pass this stick to (3 persons) and why?

Abby at Ladie Cutie Troublemaker, Pipstar from Down Under, and Giao from Gnome G & The Walrus & The Carpenter because I’ve enjoyed so much emailing with them the past few months :-)

French Women Don't Get Fat, v2.0

This note could easily be labeled “Stop the insanity, people! v2.0”. It is a follow up from my previous post, French Women Don’t Get Fat, of the same named book by Veuve Cliquot CEO Mireille Guiliano.  It seems that Mme Guiliano, and her above mentioned book, are all over the news in the US.  Obviously it's been a slow news week and I suppose all those red states are bored with reading about that little skirmish with the evil axis on the other side of the world, but I digress... 

Where was I, oh yes… So a friend from home called to tell me that Mme Guiliano has been usurping the airwaves with her drivel on 60 Minutes, the Today Show, etc… all fine bastions of upstanding journalism.  Ha!  Anyways… She also reported that one of Mme Guiliano’s “secrets” to staying thin is…drumroll please...boiled leek broth. She advises to just eat that all weekend and you’re sure to drop a few lbs and be back at your desired weight.  My response was exactly the same as when the size 4 Nigella with the size 54 breasts suggested a brown rice and seaweed salad to loose those holiday pounds, which was: “Are you kidding me?! I could weigh 800 pounds and I still wouldn’t eat boiled leek broth!” Boiled leek broth? And this woman got paid to write this crap?  Am I missing something? I’d rather be a bit overweight (which by our social standards is over 87 pounds) and indulge in a dessert or two than be “socially-acceptably-thin” (ie: under 87 pounds, thank you Kate Moss) and drink boiled leek broth. Stop the insanity, people! Please! Enjoy life!  Live a little! Eat a cookie, for God’s sake! (But for those of you who insist, more leek lore, the origin of leek broth and a leek soup recipe below…)

I met a woman last night who had just moved to France to model and when the hors d'oeuvres tray came by she eagerly took one.  Teasing her I said, "I thought models didn't eat?" She graciously said "This one does!" and popped a Price Club quiche (or Paris equivalent) in her mouth with a big smile. That could have been her entire caloric consumption for the day or perhaps she went home and hurled the offending morsel, I’ll never know but for some reason I doubt it...  So there you have it folks, living proof that it's possible to actually be a model AND eat! Someone alert the Ford Modeling Agency and Miss Moss.

Not to change subjects but… another cool thing about these newfangled blogs is that the software (typepad in my case) provides statistics on all sorts of fascinating things… like who has visited my site and from whence they hail.  If someone did a search and landed on my site I can tell from where and for what they searched.

One search particularly piqued my curiosity. It’s seems someone searched on msn for “s*x and pantyhose”.  Now I hope the same question is crossing your mind, namely… “Huh?!” as in how the heck did they end up on my little site, a site about…oh I don’t know...cooking?!?! To give them the benefit of the doubt, I suppose you could cook while wearing pantyhose and having s*x though it sounds rather dangerous, especially if grease should happen to splatter. I certainly haven’t tried it nor have I chronicled about it so why oh why did they end up on my humble site?

I had to get to the bottom of this, so I immediately clicked on the link and found myself listed on a p*rn site along with other web sites that include the word s*x and pantyhose somewhere in their web pages. Once again, “Huh?!”

After further investigation, it seems in my above mentioned rant on Nigella’s brown rice and seaweed salad, I used the word “s*x” with the “e” (in a completely different context and certainly not with pantyhose) and in a later post, I included the winning essay of who had the wildest Christmas contest (enter: pantyhose).  And I end up on a p*rn site?  So in order to avoid future embarrassment of appearing in searches on various and sundry s*x sites I have decided to insert the obliging little asterisk “*” in certain words so my G-rated site will not be sullied!  At least not by anyone other than me and my asterisk-riddled profanity! 

So on that note… I am off to make lunch. Don’t worry, it won’t be while simultaneously having s*x and wearing pantyhose, and I can guarantee you it won’t be boiled leek broth!

__________________________________________________

Vichyssoise – aka Leek and Potato Soup

Now not to completely dismiss Madame Guiliano proclivity for leeks, I must admit that I too like leeks and it is prolific in French cuisine but sauté it, braise it, brown it, roast it, take it home and call it Bob, but for the love of God, please do something with it other than BOIL it to drink the resulting broth. Yuk!

Some leek lore for you leek lovers out there, courtesy of The Internet.  It seems that in the 7th century, the Welsh wore leeks in their hats to differentiate themselves from their enemies in battle. And what happens if your leek falls out of your hat, you ask? You get killed by your fellow soldiers, of course silly, that is if you’re not able to convince them that you are indeed on their side. Could this have been the first documentation of friendly fire? During one particular victory against the Saxons, those fierce fighting Welsh led by King Cadwallader won and the leek became the emblem of pride. The leek loving Welsh have since worn this long legume to commemorate the victory on St. David’s Day, March 1st. Naturally…. leek broth or cawl is the traditional meal on this day. Thanks but I’ll have the Vichyssoise please…

This is an American version of the chilled leek and potato soup derived from the French classic. It can also be served hot which is how I prefer it. This recipe is courtesy of the Cordon Blue book, Soups, from their Home Collection.

Warning: do not attempt to cook this while simultaneously (not simulating) having s*x and wearing pantyhose. If you do not heed my warning and become injured, don’t blame me cuz I’ll just say “told you so!”  If you don’t sear an appendage and actually enjoy it, email me immediately! I have just the web site for you!

2 tbsp butter
3 large leeks, white part only, thoroughly washed and thinly sliced
1 celery stalk, thinly sliced
2 small potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 quart (approx 1 liter) chicken broth
¾ cup (approx 200 ml) heavy whipping cream (or crème fraîche)
a few stalks of chives, chopped

1. on medium heat, melt butter and add leeks and celery. cook until soft, stirring occasionally, but do not allow it to brown.  turn down the heat if you see this.
2. add potatoes and broth, salt & pepper
3. bring soup to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook for about 15 minutes or until the potatoes are very soft.
4. purée with an immersion blender right in the pot or a blender or cuisinart for a smooth consistency. (smooth or chunky, it’s your soup so make it how you want.) 
5. stir in ½ cup of cream and season to taste with salt & pepper
6. chill for at least 2 hours.
7. serve in chilled bowls. whip the remaining ¼ cup of whipping cream and garnish along with the chopped chives.

bon appetit... and between you and me, I’ve seen my share of not-so-thin French women so don’t believe everything you read!

Croissants & Cappucino

I've never officially won anything in my life in spite of my best efforts throughout most of 2002 to win the California Lottery...until now! Don't get me wrong, I have been showered with blessing which are better than winning the lotto any day but never anything official that I entered. So imagine my surprise when an email appeared in my inbox from Cooking with Amy that I had answered her trivia question correctly (one of five people) and Alan Richman's new book, Fork It Over, was in the mail! How cool is that?! This blogging thing is really great! Here was the challenge:

What pastry from Vienna made a big splash at the 1889 Paris World's Fair?
Pretzel, Croissant, Cheese Danish or Sacher Torte

I immediately headed to Google and typed in "1889 paris world fair, croissant". The second result I clicked on was to my delight a food timeline - imagine a complete timeline of all things food related, and sort of food related, from 20,000 BC and barley and grain to the invention of Cracker Jacks (1893) to 1986 and the closing of the Bay Area's Doggie Diner chain (where my dad took me when I was young because I loved the big huge dog head sign).

Here is what it said about the croissant. Interestingly enough it is correlated to the invention of cappucino! It doesn't mention the World's Fair but I took a leap of faith, guessed Empress Maria Theresa came a few hundred years later, and went with croissant for my answer.

1683, Sep 12, Marco d'Aviano, sent by Pope Innocent XI to unite the outnumbered Christian troops, spurred them to victory. The Turks left behind sacks of coffee which the Christians found too bitter, so they sweetened it with honey and milk and named the drink cappuccino after the Capuchin order of monks to which d'Aviano belonged. An Austrian baker created a crescent-shaped roll, the Kipfel, to celebrate the victory. Empress Maria Theresa later took it to France where it became the croissant. (Reuters, 4/28/03)(WSJ, 6/3/03, p.D5)

et voila! the wonders of the internet (what DID we do before?) and the amazing community of blogs! Thanks Amy for bringing us all a little bit closer thru our love of food. Another little tidbit, a rather disturbing one, I came across on this timeline took place only a few years ago...

2000, Mauritania launched a radio and television campaign to end gavage, the practice of force-feeding girls to make them gain weight as a sign of health and fertility. Illiteracy made progress slow. (WSJ, 12/29/04, p.A1)

Excuse me?  Did I read this right?  They force feed....GIRLS?!?!? OK, so let me get this straight... Animal-rights activists have been petitioning for decades to get foie gras banned and recently, in between botox appointments, stars with too much time on their hands including Martin Sheen (thought he was busy with West Wing?), Paul McCartney, Kim Basinger, Alicia Silverstone, Mary Tyler Moore, etc. joined in the fight but nary a word about these innocent cherubs. So it's NOT ok to forcefeed a stupid goose (that has no gagging reflexes by the way), but up until a few years ago it has been accepted, promoted and encouraged to forcefeed a young girl?! Am I missing something? 

In California, the foie gras eating hypocrite, Ah-nold signed into law a banning of foie gras...after 2012!  He'll be conveniently long gone thereby avoiding any controversy when this goes into effect. Lily-livered governor...or goose-livered as the case may be, but I digress...

Back to my point... So we made it a LAW not to forcefeed geese and ducks because it is so creul while in Mauritania they have a mere "televison and radio campaign" to stop it?  Kind of like Nancy Reagan's "Just say no to drugs"? We saw how well that worked... So the good people of Mauritania thought this practice dangerous enough to launch an ad campaign but not enough so to pass a law banning it. If these stars want to really do something useful, take their overpaid, overbotoxed selves down to Mauritania, teach them how to read, and get a law passed to help these young girls! 

On the other hand..."weight gain is a sign of health and fertility"??? Wow! How refresing! Obviously they haven't had our sick social influences imposed on their society that says fat is evil and slovenly and all those that fall into that category (which means anyone over 87 lbs - thank you Kate Moss) should be ostracized. So which society didn't get the memo?

A note about MY COOKBOOKS ~ that ridiculously long list on the left column of this blog

Just so y'all don't think I'm completely whacked or to confirm that I am indeed completely whacked, here's the scoop: This ridiculously long list to the left is a partial listing of all the cookbooks I have accumulated over the years and I believe I am hovering around 200. Some people buy shoes, I buy cookbooks (and shoes). No, I have neither read through nor cooked from all of these cookbooks nor have I worn all my shoes. Has Imelda worn all of her shoes?  I think not... But I do believe they (these cookbooks) all have some and many have a lot of intrinsic value.

When a woman shops, no logic is required nor often used. Please spare me the flame mail - you know it's true! At least it is for me so I usually buy a cookbook based on how hot the chef is or if I met them and had them sign it or if the book has anything remotely to do with Italy, France, cooking or wine. It's an occupational hazard and Amazon loved me for it. Since most of my books are buried in a storage unit in San Francisco and I am (not buried) in Paris, I had to list these by memory. As the light bulb goes on, I will continue to add to the list...

By the way, I am not listing the cookbooks I don't like or that have little to no culinary value...and there are many, ie: that Nigella Bites piece of you-know-what, sorry excuse of a cookbook. Maybe I'm jealous because I can't suck cake batter off my finger and voila, sell millions of very bad cookbooks... but I digress...

I am listing the books I do like and feel can help the poor schmuck who burns water (like I did!) make a decent meal.  Take, for example, Sauces. You can use it to ballast a boat however... James Peterson's Sauces is without a doubt one of the most informative, thorough cookbooks ever written.  Save yourself $35,000 and a year of your life in hell, er...I mean cooking school, and buy this book. It was 75% of my culinary education.  The other 25% was French chefs messing with my head, but more on that later...

Bienvenue à mon Blog!

Hi Everyone!  Hello from France and Welcome to my Musings and my new cool and oh-so-hip Blog.

I decided to jump on the Blog Bandwagon as it is very user-friendly as we say in hi-tech, or easy to use, as the other 10 billion people in the world say.  Maintaining my website was cumbersome at best and I could only do it from my laptop so since I have been so remiss in keeping y'all current on my culinary journey I thought I would give this a try. I am in the process of moving all my musings over to this site so please be patient as it requires some editing. And please write comments so that I know at least someone is reading it, besides myself !

So just what IS a 'blog', you ask?  Good question.  I didn't know the answer to this myself until rather recently. A 'blog' is short for 'web log' and much beyond that, you got me. Click here for a description of a blog.  I hope it helps cuz I'm still trying to figure it out...and if you do, please let me know!